It happened with me and I believe it happens with each one of us. We get into a habit of using a credit card and soon we get into a huge credit card debt. How to get out of credit card debt is often the question that pops up in your head when you are stuck either partially or fully. All the income you have goes into paying the debt with little left to even meet the basic necessities. On top of it, if you have bad luck, there are …

The most important and tough goal in an individual’s life is setting up long term goals to help him/her financially. It can be anything from savings to house building to children’s education or marriage to retirement plan. These are the basic dreams when a person enters into a job.
When a person achieves these goals he/she feels successful and also sometimes elated in the society. If setting up a goal is a big task then the toughest task is to achieve them and plan how to achieve them. There are …

Ask yourself the importance of money in your life. Go deeper to find answer and you would find that almost all actions in your life get determined by the element of money. It has such a strong influence that we live and enjoy life at the mercy of it. But if you step back and see you would find that it is all about control. Do you control money or the money controls you. Even a small level of control over money makes one financially sound and get some level …

What is your resolution for New Year? Look around and you would see that people have made resolutions mostly related to health and well being. When it comes to money, their resolution is either to earn more, payoff their debt, or are too arbitrary that you cannot define any structure around them.  When it comes to basic financial planning most of the people have a no idea on how to handle their finances. Just like small savings results in big corpus, in same way decision taken this year has a …

Nine out of the ten people I know don’t have good idea on how to invest money. Even if they know how to do it their options are limited.  They have learned about two to three things with which they keep continuing for rest of their lives. Learning to invest money is such a sacred practice they do their best to avoid it. The fear of loss is so high that they prefer to invest in instruments that have been there for generations. While there is no harm in investing …

Life is very uncertain. It has its own share of good and bad surprises. The best thing any Human Being can do is to be prepared for any surprise which can really take the sheen out of the life. In Personal Finance the first and foremost principal is to create an emergency fund. This is the fund which should be safely stacked in some bank account and earns you the best interest till the time you need it badly. This fund should always be used for hard times and should …

Most of the people realize it very late that they have crossed the limit of debt in their credit card. Spending that starts with small and unimportant things becomes severe with urgent and regular needs. Most of the decision to use credit card are impulsive. The urge to spend is a habit which grows with time and hurts you if you try to avoid it.
In my earlier post The most important thing you should know about your Credit Card , I talked about how interest component becomes so high that …

In continuation to my previous article, through a series of articles, I would go deep into mechanism of charging the interest rate by the banks on Credit Card. The billing and payment dates in your card are very important and this also provides you with an opportunity to make the best use of them. It is very important to understand how the interest is levied by the banks in order to avoid issues at the later stage. A charge of Rs. 150 may not be big for you …

Credit Card is a useful facility if used wisely by Individuals. However it becomes an evil in case one does not stick to the basic rules about the usage and payment. Most of the people who use the credit card have little knowledge about the billing cycles and the payment schedules. A lot of hard sell is done by banks in order to provide the card but no knowledge is imparted along with it. The brochures are too verbose and always miss the basic point. Not many people go through …

You Credit Card now have the ability to earn you $300 if you agree to pay your dues and close the card. This unique offer is currently being given by American Express. You might receive a call from the bank or you can call yourself to enquire about the offer. In another offer, Citigroup is offering credit to reduce the debt to some borrowers who agree to pay the dues with that money.
In these uncertain times this is an effort by the banks to clean up their books and make …

With decrease in repo and reverse repo rate by RBI, HDFC Ltd. may reduce the PLR by 0.5% in April. Also it is expected that the deposit rate might also come down next week. HDFC is India's biggest NBFC with a stronghold in Home Loan segment. Last time the rate was increased very sharply by almost 1.5% at end of 2008 which affected a lot of people. People were paying almost 12% when a month ago it reduced the rates by 0.5% in January. Still the rates are hovering around …

Days after RBI revised the Repo and Reverse Repo Rate, ICICI finally has reduced the rates. This offer is only for new customer as of now and it seems it will stay as it is. The country's second largest bank has not been so good with customers the way it used to be in the past. The customer who had taken the loan in earlier days feels more than cheated and are little with limited options. In days of glory ICICI did everything to get new customers. Its sales force …